How do u pronounce letter and ledder

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Guest

#60917 Sun, 12 Dec 04 07:04 AM

hi..how do u pronounce letter and ledder..??
thanx alot!

Guest

Mister Micawber

#60972 Sun, 12 Dec 04 01:40 PM

'Ledder' is not an English word, but in natural speech, 'letter' is usually pronounced as if it were spelled 'ledder'-- it is called a 'flap-t' sound-- /d/-- and comminly occurs in the case of unstressed 't' between vowels or between a vowel and 'l', primarily.

butter = /'bu d?r/
mettle = /'me d?l/
one at a time = /wun æd? 'taim/

Mister Micawber

Joined on Wed, Aug 4 2004

Yokohama

Veteran Member (22,656)

'The question is,' said Humpty Dumpty, 'which is to be master-- that's all.'

Vowels

Teacher Eric

#61048 Sun, 12 Dec 04 10:06 PM

Don't you mean "ladder"?

Additional 'flap-t' words:

water
city
party
meeting

Mister M, thanks for providing the term 'flap-t' for the /d/ sound in these words. I wasn't aware there was a word for it. I just tell my call center students that the "t" is often pronounced as a reduced /d/ or that the /t/ sound is sometimes omitted altogether in American English.

Teacher Eric

Joined on Mon, Aug 16 2004

Full Member (171)

Manila-based ESL/ESP teacher with a TESOL. Hoping to get a "Pass" in the DELTA.

American English

Mister Micawber

#61058 Sun, 12 Dec 04 10:34 PM

There must be a more formal word for it, Eric, but that's the name I learned in teacher training. Four "t"s-- flap-t (letter), glottal-stop t (let me) , aspirated t (right!) and elided t (I wanna).

Mister Micawber

Glottals

Teacher Eric

#61072 Sun, 12 Dec 04 11:00 PM

Thanks a mil, Mr M! This info would come in very handy when I take the CELTA in February. Might be just the thing I'd need to get an 'A'. Smile [:)]

Strange, I don't remember this being taught in TESOL class. Wait 'til I begin my next American Accent class next week. Wink [;)]

Teacher Eric

Accents, American Accents, CELTA

Orpheus

#61123 Mon, 13 Dec 04 08:45 AM

As far as I know, the tapping of the /t/ sound is typical of American English. British speakers don't generally do this. So in British English, the pronunciations of the two words are quite different, the former with a /t/ and the latter a /d/.
HTH

Orpheus

Joined on Tue, Jun 17 2003

Jakarta, Indonesia

Regular Member (570)

'Truth is Subjectivity' - Kierkegaard

American English, British English

nona the brit

#61235 Mon, 13 Dec 04 10:44 PM

Agreed.

nona the brit

Joined on Wed, Sep 22 2004

England

Veteran Member (11,450)

The name says it all.

Pemmican

#64720 Sun, 02 Jan 05 04:16 AM

A great example is also the American pronunciation of "Atlanta" where it often sounds like
"Adlanna". Smile [:)]

Pemmican

Joined on Thu, Aug 21 2003

Westphalia, Germany

Regular Member (569)

Wâ mag ich mich nu vinden? wâ mac ich mich nu suochen, wâ? nu bin ich hie und bin ouch dâ und enbin doch weder dâ noch hie. wer wart ouch sus verirret ie?wer wart ie sus...

Pronunciation

meo_scorpio

#65321 Wed, 05 Jan 05 02:57 AM

Hi everyone,

This is my first post in this forum. For questions like this, I think it would be better to post a sound file to demonstrate the voice needs to be pronounced. So I wonder if someone could help.

meo_scorpio

Joined on Wed, Jan 5 2005

New Member (09)

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